Indigowings
by V. Thomas
Summary: Not all warriors are born to a long line of warriors. Some, no matter how fierce they may be, come from soft roots. Indigowings was one such cat.


**This story was requested by Shadow Phoenix of the Warrior Cats Forum (who may or may not have had fancy symbols in their name). I no longer possess the information I was given, and all character credit goes to Shadow Phoenix.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Warriors series.**

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Not all warriors are born to a long line of warriors. Some, no matter how fierce they may be, come from soft roots. Indigowings was one such cat.

When she was born, she was simply called Indigo. Nothing more, nothing less. Her mother, a proud queen with an affinity for colors, taught her very little, except that it was a trying task to raise kits, especially when there were five of them. Indigo was the eldest kit of the litter, which consisted of herself, Vermillion, Ochre, Cobalt, and Saffron.

"Wait up!" her littermates would cry when she streaked into the garden to be left alone. From a young age, Indigo showed that, behind her frosty gray-blue eyes, there was a desire to stand alone. Even when Palette, her mother, urged her to come into the Twoleg nest for dinner, the lithe little kit would take her sweet time. She rarely bowed to anyone for anything.

That was before ViridiaClan.

Indigo didn't learn of ViridiaClan until her father came, but when he did, she refused to be left behind. She demanded (not begged) that Nightwing bring her to the Clan. The blue-black she-cat felt the urge to become a warrior.

Saffron, a golden tabby tom who looked nothing at all like his parents, was close enough to hear Indigo's demands, and he charged out of the bushes he was hiding in, pleading to go too. Nightwing, overwhelmed by the requests of his children, refused. How would he explain his kits to the Clan? They all thought Mistpool was his mate, and Mistpool would never forgive him.

He had a change of heart.

Nightwing returned a quarter moon later and had a heated discussion with Palette. Indigo, who was eavesdropping on her parents, discovered that they were arguing over whether or not she and Saffron could go to ViridiaClan with their father.

"I'm going. Whether I get there or not, we'll find out," she growled determinedly, stepping out of the shadows. Both of her parents seemed surprised by her presence, and Nightwing remarked that his daughter was a natural hunter. This angered Palette, but when Saffron revealed himself as well, the blue-silver queen gave up. Two of her kits, no more, no less, would accompany Nightwing back to ViridiaClan.

Grateful for Palette's grudging cooperation, Nightwing promised to be back the next day. He expected Indigo and Saffron to be waiting in the garden, collars loosened as much as possible. They agreed, and when their father returned for them, their collars were actually gone, buried beneath the roses.

Nightwing praised them warmly when he saw this, but then his tone became frosty. He told his kits that, as soon as they reached ViridiaClan, he was no longer their father. They needed to forge their own path in the Clan instead of relying on him. Later, Indigo would understand that Nightwing was just trying to protect his reputation as a loyal warrior, but she wouldn't blame him. Blazing her own trail was far more appealing anyway.

Upon their arrival in ViridiaClan, cats peered at Indigo and her brother with undisguised curiosity, hostility, or in some cases, both.

"I found these two wandering in the forest," Nightwing explained gruffly, stepping away from

Indigo and Saffron to leave them at ViridiaClan's mercy. A couple cats snorted contemptuously ad they got a closer look at the kittypet arrivals. Others hung back, looking uninterested, and then a stocky tom with a short brown tabby pelt slid through the crowd.

As it turned out, the tabby tom was Duststar, and he sat down right in front of Indigo and her littermate to quietly question them about their past. While Indigo had all sorts of lies prepared, she allowed Saffron to weave a heart-wrenching tale of how they were separated from their mother by Twolegs. According to the golden tabby, they also lost a sibling to a monster on the Thunderpath.

Indigo only chimed in once, adding that their father was dead, at least to them. Catching sight of Nightwing standing by Mistpool, she invented a mysterious she-cat that their father left their mother for. Apparently, this mysterious she-cat made their father choose between his kits and his new lover.

"You can see what he chose," she hissed, pretending to look hurt and conflicted. Saffron forced his tail and shoulders to droop, and the pity that swept through ViridiaClan was almost tangible. Even Duststar seemed to feel sorry for them, and he asked how old they were. A response of "Six, seven moons," satisfied him.

Getting to his paws once again, the tabby tom raised his voice, asking his Clanmates if they felt that the two small newcomers should be accepted. The only objections came from the crotchety old elders and a couple of apprentices.

After the noises of agreement and protest died down, Duststar asked what his new charges were named, then showed surprising agility as he sprang onto a high oak branch and called an official Clan meeting. During the meeting, he calmly renamed Indigo as Indigopaw and did the same for Saffron. He then called upon two reliable warriors to be mentors to the young kittypets. Sorrelfrost, a young tortoiseshell warrior, was named as Saffronpaw's mentor, and Indigopaw was apprenticed to the deputy, Owlstorm.

Owlstorm, not one for very much talking, got along very well with Indigopaw. He softly gave her instruction, and she complied silently, but for a couple exceptions.

A natural hunter, as Nightwing had once praised, she disagreed with Owlstorm's method of hunting. The muscular brown tom preferred a quick chase that didn't always yield results, but Indigopaw had a different tactic. She paid attention to little signs, like seeds beneath a tree or running water, whenever she was out of camp. They were signs of life, signs of prey.

Indigopaw, when asked to hunt, would position herself very close to one of her prey-signs and patiently wait in the shadows. Every time she used this technique, she returned to camp with at least one piece of prey, bare minimum, much to the annoyance of her Clanmates.

"Showoff," a limber ginger she-cat, Sunpaw, growled one afternoon. "At least your brother has the decency to remember he'll never be a real Clan cat." As enraged by this as she was, Indigopaw stalked away, knowing that getting in a fight with Sunpaw wasn't worth it. Even when the other apprentice shrieked after her, commanding her to get over herself, the lithe former-kittypet ignored her.

A few days later, Indigopaw went through her first real battle, and barely made it.

A mother badger protecting two cubs of substantial size, happened upon a patrol. Indigopaw, Owlstorm, Birchfeather, and Sandflower were inspecting the EverClan border when the mother badger came crashing through the undergrowth. She must have felt threatened for some reason, because she and her cubs attacked the patrol. Sandflower, the swiftest cat present, was sent to retrieve back-up from the camp, and when she returned with Sorrelfrost, Saffronpaw, Nightwing, and Duststar himself, Owlstorm was already dead and the cubs were advancing on Indigopaw.

As much as she wanted to prove herself, the little she-cat was terrified. She quivered like a leaf under the hungry gazes of the cubs, Owlstorm's blood and some of her own staining the silver flecks in her pelt crimson.

Before Nightwing could leap to her rescue, he was intercepted by the mother badger, and the cubs rushed forward, batting Indigopaw around like she was nothing.

She woke up a day or two later in Featherdawn's den, side swathed in layers upon layers of cobwebs. The silver tabby medicine cat gently informed Indigopaw that Nightwing was dead and that Saffronpaw was now a warrior.

"But what about me?" the broken-looking apprentice demanded, dull grief filling her heart. Featherdawn kindly explained to her that she would have to wait to become a warrior, her injuries were so severe. It seemed the cubs had nearly ruined her right foreleg in addition to opening up her side. Saffronpaw, now Saffronwing, had bravely leaped in to save her from a worse fate after Nightwing had fallen at the mother badger's claws.

Indigopaw, promising she wouldn't freeze up in battle again, followed Featherdawn's every order concerning her recovery. She was absolutely determined to become a warrior before new-leaf came, about five moons from then.

Tragedy struck shortly before her warrior ceremony. A whitecough outbreak escalated into greencough, killing Darkpelt, Rainflight, and Saffronwing. Devastated by the deaths of her brother and father as well as fueled by resentment for Sunpaw, now Sunfrost, Indigopaw pushed herself to work harder and harder under the tutelage of Sandflower until she was finally called up in front of Duststar to become a warrior.

As the aging tom went through the traditional words, Indigopaw made a brash move.

"Please, name me Indigowings," she asked of him as soon as he had christened her Indigowing. Startled, the bulky tabby nodded, amending her name per request.

When Indigowings stepped away from her leader, she saw the murderous look that Sunfrost was giving her and figured there was a snide kittypet jibe waiting for her. More likely than not, it would be something about how kittypets always getting what they wanted.

Ignoring Sunfrost, Indigowings took a seat near the edge of the crowd, simply waiting to begin her official vigil. Before the sun sank, almost all of the Clan came by to congratulate her. She even had to shut down a young warrior named Liontail when he tried to flirt with her.

Shortly before the moon rose, Duststar asked Indigowings to think about her reasons for requesting a name change. She was to tell him in the morning when she was released from her vigil, and not a moment later. He was curious.

Indigowings knew she couldn't tell the truth about her request honoring her father and brother. She had lied about her relationship to Nightwing for so long. Instead, she pondered long and hard over a response for her leader, and just as dawn broke, she came up with a very simple reply.

Padding into Duststar's den as soon as Sandflower dismissed her, Indigowings gently nosed him awake.

"A bird can't fly with just one wing," she meowed flatly. For a long time, Duststar watched her, clearly mulling her words over. When he finally blinked, she departed without another word.

Although Indigowings adjusted easily to Clan life, even developing a belief in StarClan, she never took on an apprentice. Her icy demeanor and untimely death prevented it.

A couple seasons after receiving her warrior name, Indigowings was accompanying Sorrelfrost, Mistpool, and Liontail on a patrol when she scented unfamiliar cats.

Her detection of the rogues seemed to be their cue to attack, and five or six of them burst out of the brambles. Mistpool, who was nearest to them, was knocked down first, and Indigowings made the split-second decision to save her.

Remembering how much her father had seemed to care for the pale blue-gray she-cat, she felt it was her duty to intervene, as foolish as it was. Maybe it was a gesture of forgiveness to her father for never being there for her.

Only Indigowings died that day. Facing three rogues at once hadn't been wise, and one of them slit her throat with a well-placed blow. She had crumpled almost instantly, and was gone by the time that her Clanmates had driven the rest of the rogues away.

"Why did you make Duststar change your name?" both Saffronwing and Nightwing asked when Indigowings entered StarClan.

Her only response as she wedged herself between the two of them was, "A bird can't fly with just one wing."


End file.
